1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid accommodation body and an accommodation body unit.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as technology to supply an ink to a printer, which is an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus, technology is known which uses an ink cartridge (also referred to simply as a “cartridge”) that accommodates an ink (for example, refer to JP-A-8-112915, JP-A-2011-207066, JP-A-2003-191488, US-A-2012-0133713, JP-A-2012-35479). The cartridge is provided with an ink supply portion having an opening to cause the ink to flow to the outside. When the cartridge is mounted in the printer, the ink is supplied from the ink supply portion to the printer side.
In an initial state before the cartridge is mounted in the printer during shipping or the like, there is a case in which the cartridge is provided with a cap member in order to prevent the ink from leaking out from the opening of the ink supply portion to the outside (for example, refer to JP-A-8-112915). However, in a case in which a cap member is attached so as to block the opening of the ink supply portion, a space (also referred to as “the inner chamber”) partitioned by the ink supply portion and the cap member is compressed, and there is a case in which the air of the inner chamber may flow into the ink accommodation portion which accommodates the ink within the cartridge. In addition, in a case in which the inner chamber is maintained in a high-pressure state, when the cap member is removed in this state, the pressure of the inner chamber drops suddenly and the ink may leak out from the ink supply portion with the pressure fluctuation.
In addition, when the cartridge is mounted in the printer, in order to stop the ink from leaking out from the opening of the ink supply portion of the cartridge, the periphery of the opening of the ink supply portion is sealed using a seal member of the printer. In this case, there is a concern that the space (the inner chamber) partitioned by the ink supply portion and the elastic member of the printer is compressed. When the pressure of the inner chamber becomes high, the air of the inner chamber may flow into the ink accommodation portion. In addition, in a case in which the inner chamber is maintained in a high-pressure state, when the cartridge is removed from the printer in this state, the pressure of the inner chamber drops suddenly and the ink may leak out from the ink supply portion with this pressure fluctuation.
In addition, according to a type of cartridge, in the initial state, in order to obtain a reduction of the amount of dissolved gas in the ink of the ink accommodation portion, there is a case in which the cartridge is accommodated in a decompressed packaging material (also referred to as a “reduced pressure pack”) for distribution. For example, there is a case in which a so-called half-sealed type of cartridge where the outside air is intermittently introduced into the ink accommodation portion with the consumption of the ink of the ink accommodation portion (JP-A-2003-191488), or a so-called sealed type of cartridge where the ink accommodation portion is a sealed space that does not communicate with the atmosphere (US-A-2012-0133713) is accommodated in a decompressed packaging material for distribution in this manner. In the half-sealed type of cartridge disclosed in JP-A-2003-191488 and the sealed type of cartridge disclosed in US-A-2012-0133713, a portion of the ink accommodation portion is fabricated from a deformable sheet member and is arranged so as to make contact with the air chamber that communicates with the outside.
However, in a case in which the opening of the ink supply portion is blocked by the cap member, when the cartridge is accommodated in the packaging material and the inner portion is decompressed, there is a concern that air will flow into the ink accommodation portion from the inner chamber.
The problems described above are not limited to an ink cartridge, and are common problems to any cartridge that accommodates a type of liquid other than ink.
Furthermore, in order to solve such problems, a technology is known in which, as in JP-A-2012-35479, a flow path is provided that communicates from the inner chamber to a liquid accommodation portion, and the inner chamber is made to communicate with the atmosphere via the flow path. However, this technology assumes the use of a so-called open type of cartridge in which the liquid accommodation portion is always open in relation to the atmosphere and may not be applied to the so-called half-sealed type of cartridge such as that of JP-A-2003-191488 or the so-called sealed type of cartridge such as that of US-A-2012-0133713.